Trace of Innocence | Sweet and Sour (Book 4)

Chapter 91

(No Control | Holding Me Ransom - 91 - Written In My Memory)

"What did?" Jess demands, the tremor in her voice clearly audible. "What started last summer?"

Callie seems to take forever to speak. I can only watch in disbelief at her fucking timing. 

"You'd just come back from LA after visiting Harry, and you thought he'd been shagging around behind your back with Taylor Swift," she begins, looking directly at Jess. "You were a mess. You were barely eating, barely functioning. You looked like death."

I fidget nervously, uncomfortable with this being brought up in front of me on our anniversary. 

"I convinced you to come out one night and we ended up in the same bar as Nick Grimshaw," Callie continues. "You had another row with Harry on the phone - I can't even remember what about - and that set you back even further. You were moping around, crying all the time... I was so worried about you. All he ever seemed to do was humiliate you publicly. There was the story about him hooking up with some girl on tour, only a few days after you two met -"

"Which had happened before I even knew Jess!" I interject, unable to hold my tongue. 

"Then there was the whole Taylor Swift fiasco, then there was that girl who had the matching tattoos who was dating him while you were supposedly seeing him -"

"We've been through this, that was a load of bullshit," I growl, struggling to contain the fury rising in me. 

"I know!" Callie snaps impatiently. "I'm setting the scene, trying to explain, if you'd just shut your arrogant mouth and let me speak."

The sheer fucking audacity of this girl. 

"Careful, you almost showed your true colours," I snipe. 

I can see Jess looking back and forth between the two of us with her mouth open, clearly bemused by the turn this conversation has taken. 

"Anyway," Callie emphasises, "you ended up dumping him on the phone, and I remember being astounded that you were the one to break things off, considering how crazy you were about him. I mean, you were in love with the guy when all he did was treat you like shit." 

All I did was treat her like shit? She has literally just been saying that she's got me all wrong! 

I take a deep breath, ready to defend myself, but she throws me a look of death. 

"I'm telling it like I saw it, before you interrupt me with your self-inflated opinions," she delivers, and I shut my mouth, inwardly seething but conscious that we're still in a room full of people and I don't want to draw unnecessary attention to us. 

"The second break up was even worse than the first," Callie continues, turning back to Jess who is apparently speechless. "You just cried constantly. I was worried you would hurt yourself, or worse... I've never seen you in such a state."

I feel uncomfortable hearing this told from Callie's point of view. I mean, I knew Jess had been upset but I didn't know Callie had been this worried about her. 

"And then we went to the Big Weekend," Callie is saying, "and you seemed to be a bit happier; you were laughing and joking with us, and it was so obvious Gary had a crush on you. I hoped he might be just what you needed to move on from Harry -"

Fucking Barry. 

" - but then Harry showed up with his sister, and I thought she was his girlfriend and you kissed Gary to make Harry jealous and everything went wrong again." 

My stomach clenches sickeningly at the memory of Jess kissing Gary right in front of me. I've tried hard to erase that image, but of course Callie brings it expertly in front of my face again. But her story isn't finished yet: